The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-23
PREDECESSORS OF wlccINs.
The Canadian Crank not the First to
Fool the People.

London Telegraph.
Virgins is not the first prophet TO foretell
the exact date of the fulfllment of his predic-
tions nor yet the first to create an earthquake
scare. Winston, an Englishman, declared
that the world would come to an end on the
18th of October, 1887. And it is recorded
that the people Of London, on the appointed
day, sailed forth to the open spaces between
Holborn and Hampstead to witness the de-
struetion of the metropolis, where the devas-
tation was fixed to begin. Pope and Gray
wrote a satire ON the subject, entitled "A
True and Faithful Narrative of what passed
in London on a Rumor Of the Day Of Judge
ment," afterwards printed in Swift's "Misce-
llaneous." A quarter of a century later two
serious shocks of earthquake did occur, one
at the east end of the town, and the other In
the northern suburbs, the first on the Sth Of
February, the second on the 8th of March,
ThereupOn "a crackbrained fellow" named
Bell, a trooper in his Majesty's Life Guards,
ran up and down the streets shouting out
that third was fixed for the 9th of April,
thus antedating Virgins notation by exact
ly century and quarter Many persons
laughed at Bell, as their posterity may be in.
clined to smile at his transatlantic imitator;
but thousands believed in the prediction and
took measures accordingly. As the day drew
ulous people ran away to outlying villages
within circuit of 20 miles of the metropolis.
IL is said that the innkeepers and poorer sort
of householders of Islington, Highgate,
Hampstead, Harrow, and Blackheath made
a market Of the terror-stricken folk, charged
them exorbitantly for bed and board. When
April the 9th, 1861, came and went minus an
earthquake, the only thing which suffered
shock was Bells prophetical reputation and
a few months later the poor fellow was con-
signed to an asylum for the insane.
We may, indeed, travel much further back
along the stream Of time and come upon sim
liar manifestations of human credulity here
in the good city of London. 1t was predict
ed that Feb. 1,1524, would witness the swell
ing Of the Thames to such height that the
metropolis must be submerged, and allliving
things therein drowned. As in 1861, the
prophecy met with credence, and many peO-
fled into the surrounding country. Bolton,
the Prior of st. Bartholomew's, built fort
ress at Harrow-on-the-H Hill, which he stocked
with provisions for a couple of months, and
repaired thither with his brethren. Many
wealthy citizens petitioned the Prior to find
them h0usero0m in his retreat; but he would
only entertain his personal friends, OF whom
agOodly assemblage was forthcoming. When,
however, the 1st of February arrived, "the
Thames, unmindful of the foolish crowd up
on its banks. flowed on quietly as of yore.
The tide ebbed at it usual hour, flowed to its
usual height, and then ebbed again, Just as if
the country" The astrologers subsequently
put it about that the stars were right and
they were wrong. They had made a miscal-
culation by exactly 100 years. Yet it hap
pened that, when Feb. l, 1924, arrived, Lon
don was not destroyed by water, but the
prophets had passed beyond the reach Of
mundane criticism Doubtless during their
afterstay on earth, and when thinking the
matter over, these wise men eomforted them
selves with the reflection that, whether the
astral bodies were right or wrong, they at
least had effected profitable time bargain.
These few facts, drawn at random from the
long and deplorable history of superstition,
are presented with every mark of necessary
and becoming respect 20 Prof. Virgins, Of
the United States of America.